Abstract
Eleanor Fagan, better known as Billie Holiday, is one of the most prominent jazz vocalists of the 20th century. Among her most outstanding works is the song "Strange Fruit", which took Billie Holiday from the realm of love songs and lighter entertainment to a status of symbol of political involvement in the civil rights cause. "Strange Fruit", written and performed at the end of the 1930s, rose to fame in a context where the civil rights movement had yet to take off. It is only later on, in the 1960s, in the midst of the most active decade for the civil rights movement, that Billie Holiday's song truly began to be utilized as an iconic piece by leaders and activists of the cause. "Strange Fruit" became a staple of anti-racist resistance in the United States, yet Billie Holiday is not usually considered a political figure or a "protest singer" in the traditional sense.
This discrepancy raises many questions on the nature of Billie's actual involvement and interest in the civil rights cause and on the extent to which and reasons why "Strange Fruit" has been appropriated by the civil rights movement. I argue that it is not Billie Holiday's actual political contribution, but the need of every rising political movement of opposition for powerful cultural symbols of resistance that explains the importance of Billie and her song for the civil rights movement.
